A blockchain tour of Africa

Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency have benefited from their inherent immunity to government regulation and interference in their proliferation across Africa. In fact, the decentralized nature of these technologies is arguably what makes them such interesting technology to apply to Africa’s unique systems.

As we showed before, African governments haven’t been the most receptive to cryptocurrency, so we thought to take a look at the continent’s most prominent blockchain activities to gauge how Africa is reacting to that technology. Here’s what we found:

NigeriaWhile cryptocurrency activity has arguably been on the uptake in Nigeria, there seems to be skeptical interest in blockchain technology with a couple of associations and groups dotting the landscape. Not a lot happening here.

EgyptEgypt’s Central bank has joined R3, a leading consortium of blockchain banking institutions, so its safe to say there is interest from a regulatory perspective. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of activity in the private sector although the country’s first blockchain-focused incubation Hub launched in April.

GhanaAlthough it seems to have gone relatively quiet now, Ghana was abuzz with blockchain fever in 2016 & 2017. Bitland and Land Layby Holdings are two Ghanaian companies that have announced (Bitland actually started a pilot test in Kumasi) plans to digitise Ghana’s land registry using blockchain technology.

BotswanaThanks to people like Alakanani Itireleng, Founder of the Satoshi Center, Botswana’s only blockchain hub, the technology has some kind of footing in the Southern African country. The Satoshi Center has an interesting startup in its incubation program called Plaas (pdf), a mobile platform that enables individual farmers or co-operatives to manage daily production and stock on the blockchain system.

Broadly speaking, blockchain technology is yet to hit mainstream consciousness here in Africa (compared to innovations in fintech, or health tech, for example). That doesn’t rule out experimentation, which is where Africa is at, and it will be interesting to see what we make of this technology in the years to come.